Wellness
A Novel
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Wellness
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Narrated by:
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Ari Fliakos
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Written by:
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Nathan Hill
About this listen
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • OPRAH’S BOOK CLUB PICK • AN NPR BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR • The New York Times best-selling author of The Nix is back with a poignant and witty novel about a modern marriage and the bonds that keep people together. Mining the absurdities of contemporary society, Wellness reimagines the love story with a healthy dose of insight, irony, and heart.
"A stunning novel about the stories that we tell about our lives and our loves, and how we sustain relationships throughout time—it's beyond remarkable, both funny and heartbreaking, sometimes on the same page.”—NPR
When Jack and Elizabeth meet as college students in the gritty '90s Chicago art scene, the two quickly join forces and hold on tight, each eager to claim a place in the thriving underground scene with an appreciative kindred spirit. Fast-forward twenty years to suburban married life, and alongside the challenges of parenting, they encounter the often-baffling pursuits of health and happiness from polyamorous would-be suitors to home-renovation hysteria.
For the first time, Jack and Elizabeth struggle to recognize each other, and the no-longer-youthful dreamers are forced to face their demons, from unfulfilled career ambitions to childhood memories of their own dysfunctional families. In the process, Jack and Elizabeth must undertake separate, personal excavations, or risk losing the best thing in their lives: each other.
©2023 Nathan Hill (P)2023 Random House AudioWhat the critics say
"This audiobook's excellence makes its nearly 19-hour time span fly by. Ari Fliakos is superb in this complex yet supremely accessible performance. He lends his skill to the depiction of Jack and Elizabeth's relationship and all its backstories and subplots. No nuance of this novel escapes Fliakos: satirical social commentary, tender love story, hilarious missteps of modern life, heartbreaking loss . . . The full kaleidoscope of the human experience simply sings when rendered by his voice. As the plot leaps across time periods and back, Fliakos's confident pace keeps everything steady. Lively dialogue among the characters is rendered with just the right amount of wit and personality. Hill's often profound words and Fliakos's expert performance combine to make this an outstanding listening experience." (AudioFIle; winner of AudioFile Earphones Award)
“A modern take on love, marriage, and society’s obsession on improving almost every aspect of our lives–and the impact technology and social media has on our culture and in our lives. This brilliant novel will leave you thinking about the truth of your own life and the stories we tell ourselves and each other.”–Oprah Winfrey
"Gorgeous . . . Wellness has an insistent pull . . . The beauty of Hill’s second novel is that every character is at least a little strange and no one is unworthy of sympathy . . . Few recent novels harbor as much love for humanity as this one does."–The Washington Post
“Wellness is a perfect novel for our age . . . Hill is an immensely talented writer; he has a gift for prose that's elegant but unshowy, and his dialogue consistently rings true-to-life . . . a stunning novel about the stories that we tell about our lives and our loves, and how we sustain relationships throughout time—it's beyond remarkable, both funny and heartbreaking, sometimes on the same page.”—NPR
What listeners say about Wellness
Average Customer RatingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Joy Noonan
- 2023-09-28
The performance of this story is incredible
This is not the story I was expecting and, at times, it left my head spinning a bit. But incredibly performed and brought to life. Thought provoking, heartbreaking, and leaves you rooting so much for Jack and Elizabeth.
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1 person found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Rob gosney
- 2023-10-30
Favourite book this year!
The author has done a fantastic and fun job of capturing a little bit of many of us in here.
I saw myself, learned something and laughed out loud.
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1 person found this helpful
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance1 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- Anonymous User
- 2024-03-27
annoying narrator
I found the person reading had a very annoying voice, especially when reading from the woman's perspective. also his volume changed a lot. the story was cool. I liked the ending. some historical parts in the middle made me wonder why it was included. was confusing.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Melissa
- 2024-03-17
Loved Every Minute!
I absolutely loved this book - I feel like it perfectly portrayed love and life…and that every story within was neatly packaged and complete. I laughed, I teared up…I empathized with just about every character. Very well written!
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- N. Fairweather
- 2023-12-11
My favourite book this year
I don't want to have to write about the book just to give it a rating.
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Overall1 out of 5 stars
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Performance1 out of 5 stars
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Story1 out of 5 stars
- Suncoaster Girl
- 2023-11-24
Drab & Mundane
Waste of a credit! Narrator sounds like he’s speaking at a poet reading with a drab mundane, but performative way of speaking. The story is also pretty boring. Not sure if you can even really call it a story. There is no plot. Just two people going through a mundane way of living. I found myself not even wanting to listen, so I just decided to stop and pick another title. Big relief not to suffer through that anymore. I rarely stop books, but there’s too many better ones out there to spend time, persevering, and struggling through this one!
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Overall2 out of 5 stars
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Performance2 out of 5 stars
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Story2 out of 5 stars
- Lacey Corbett
- 2024-03-15
Prolonged boredom, dramatic performance
Would not recommend. Interesting topics in theory and has fun moments but so extremely long winded and boring and the way the male narrator narrates female voices is condescending and very irritating. I’m not sure if the book would be ok if I was reading it but I can’t handle the narrator and the length.
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